THE INSECT WORLD. 



Other, and he demonstrated that in the case of kuids whose 

 adults were very unhke in shape, the resemblance of the young 

 existed for a certain period, and then anatomical distinctions 

 began and progressed until perfection was arrived at. There 

 are, therefore, changes inside the ^gg, and moultings and 

 metamorphoses outside, during the life history of most of the 



A rticulata. 



Perhaps, when the matter has been more studied, the animal 

 kingdom will be classified by observing the nature of the changes 

 from the embryo to the adult form, and during the embryonic 

 condition, but at present there are some difficulties to be over- 

 come, for very similar creatures have different metamorphoses 

 and grades of changes of shape. 



That is to say, there are animals which resemble each other 

 so far as their structures and habits are concerned, and which 

 go through complete metamorphoses, and others that only have 

 to submit to slight changes of shape and structure. The dif- 

 ference is most striking, but, nevertheless, when the immature 

 forms, and even the adults, are anatomised, the greatest resem- 

 blances are detected between them. The beetles— for instance, 

 the cockchafer and the stag beetle— are born in a very incomplete 

 or embryonic condition. Insects of the order of the Orthoptcra 

 —the grasshoppers or the earwigs— on the contrary, ivhen they 

 come out of their eggs nearly resemble their parents, and they 

 do not undergo true metamorphoses. But the beetles and the 

 grasshoppers, so far as the details of their construction are con- 

 cerned, do not show any but secondary differences. The beetles 

 have greater structural resemblances to the grasshoppers than 

 they have to the butterflies, yet they resemble these last in 

 their method of development and evolution. Similar peculiarities 

 may be detected amongst the Crustacea. The lobster and the 

 prawn are closely allied by their similarity of construction ; but 

 the first hardly undergo a change, whilst the last present three 

 forms before reaching the mature beauties of prawn life. 



It would appear-after studying the metamorphoses of the 

 Articulata and their skin shcddings, which are really the external 

 evidences of an inward transformation, which is not marked by 

 a great break or phase in the insect economy— that these mte- 



